The Lay Pilgrims of the 'Canterbury Tales': A Study in Ethology

Description: Argues that in his characterizations of the non-ecclesiastical pilgrims of CT Chaucer emulated the devices and techniques of medieval ethology, based in the "contemptus mundi" tradition, and variously prescriptive and descriptive. Comments on GP as a "mixed ethologue," and discusses the ethos and ethological make-up the lay pilgrims (narrator, Knight, Squire, Miller, Reeve, Man of Law, Manciple, Merchant, Shipman, Wife of Bath, Franklin, and Physician), describing how the characters and their tales constitute an expansive ethology.

Chaucer Subjects: Canterbury Tales--General; General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales; Sources, Analogues, and LIterary Relations